Current network data plane protocol is based on an end-to-end 7-layer protocol stack. There is an independent process within each layer and interaction between independent layers is via primitives between layers. Many of the functions of end-to-end data plane process co-exist with lower layer per link data process function in the network. The current protocol stack is fixed over session(s) and pre-configured, which cannot adapt to network status changes. The current protocol stack design provides a limited number of options that prevents it from the tightly matched provisioning of per application quality of experience (QoE). The current protocol stack design does not take the software design networking (SDN) concept into the consideration, which prevents it from fully exploiting the benefits of SDN. The current protocol stack treats all end-to-end hosts the same, but many new and/or future services and/or applications, e.g., machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, may require a custom protocol stack.